“The extent of patients who went from taking opioids to manage chronic pain to no longer requiring opioids at all surprised us,” Asif M.
Using a prescription drug monitoring program system for patients with chronic musculoskeletal non-cancer back pain, Ilyas and colleagues compared average morphine milligram equivalents per day of opioid prescriptions filled within 6 months prior to access to medical cannabis and opioid prescriptions filled after obtaining access to medical cannabis.
Morphine milligram equivalents per day significantly decreased from 3.5 to 2.1 in patients who started with less than 15 morphine milligram equivalents per day and from 44.9 to 33.9 in patients who started with greater than 15 morphine milligram equivalents per day prior to receiving a medical cannabis prescription, according to results.
Results showed improvements in patient pain intensity, frequency and daily function at 3, 6 and 9 months post-medical cannabis certification compared with baseline.